Rumiko Takahashi? The richest in Japan? Of course not. She's one of the richest manga artists, but not the richest people.

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Originally Posted by immel

Since some years back it's impossible to know because the Japanese government doesn't make the tax charts public anymore.

So, since then, no one knows and everything is guesses. Don't trust anything.

The tax thing was made till 2004, I believe.

And she isn't the singer with the most earning in Asia. Not even the female singer, that's Utada Hikaru (according to the tax lists).

It's isn't difficult how much money she made from 2000 to 2004, you just need the Tax-Payer list.

She wasn't one of the biggest top earners for the past 20 years in the Entertainment World (Tetsuya Komuro was #1, she don't make the Top 10. Hikki is 8th) but she is the second richest female singer (after Utada Hikaru)>

Well, keeping your money in one large chunk is more or less illegal, considering that if you do, you have to pay INSANE taxes, which will render you as poor as any normal mortal in a pretty short amount of time. So of course you have to keep your money in circulation and "avoid" (that sounds like something that's bad to do, lol) taxes.

I actually also read that Rumiko Takahashi is the richest person in Japan. That info is pretty old but it did not specify whether or not it was based only on manga-ka or not.

With Ayumi, she keeps a large entourage, so that comes out of her pocket unless Avex is the one that takes care of those charges. She's probably still one of the top earners in her business but I doubt she earns as much as she did in 2001.

Every year the Japanese National Tax Administration Agency releases a list of the highest income tax payers in Japan. The higher someone's income tax, the higher their actual presumed earnings, however it is possible for a person to have paid more taxes than another person who made more money.

In 2002 Manga information magazine Comic Fan published a list of the top tax payers among Manga-ka at the time and their estimated annual income. Rumiko Takahashi was then, as she is now, the highest taxed Manga-ka in Japan, with an estimated income of 616 million yen in 2001. In 2003 Takahashi paid 171 million yen in taxes, down from the 225 million she paid in 2001. It can be estimated that she earned approximately 450 million yen in 2003.http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=5005

IWith Ayumi, she keeps a large entourage, so that comes out of her pocket unless Avex is the one that takes care of those charges.

She does probably earn more now than in 2001, because of the way her contracts work. She signs up for 3 year periods, meaning her very first contract with avex was still valid throughout 2001. For every new signed contract she has most likely been able to get a better deal.

What the contracts say is a mystery to us, though. They might contain information such as you may not marry, you have to make 3 singles, 1 album, 1 tour and all TV performances we put you in and so on. You get this and that much money for making a tour or a tour performance, you get this and that much for an album. What has been speculated on a lot is that Ayu actually only receive certain sums for everything she does, while daddy avex pays for everything, tours, promotion, etc.

Most of this information is credited to ayu_fan929 who knows a lot about this.